Michael: Frankie and the Heartstrings- Tender

“The first six to twelve months of us forming Frankie and the Hearstrings was the most exciting time ever. It was incredible. Dave the drummer and I were already friends. I’d been to college with Frankie and I was mates with Denise, but Frankie and Denise had never met.

Tender is the first song we ever wrote as a band. I wrote some of it in my living room, it was half finished for our first practise at the Bunker. The song starts with an acapella verse and that first day we all started singing together and I just thought ‘we’re onto something here’. We’d soon written a few other songs that all sounded right.

Almost straight away there were labels wanting to sign us and we were going down to London for gigs. I remember being in the car with the lads in a red Renault Scenic travelling to a gig at the Brixton Academy.

I’d been in bands for years with nothing. Then it all kicked off. Going from playing the White Room in Holmeside to supporting Florence and The Machine was immense. In fact the song we were listening to then was Girls- which could easily have been my most memorable song. That six months was great for all our friends and family too. Really good fun for everyone. The band still play this song together and it always bring back very happy memories.”